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Pornography in China, which is defined as the
People's Republic of China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, most populous country, with a Population of China, population exceeding 1.4 billion, sli ...
(PRC) or the
Republic of China Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the northea ...
(ROC), may vary depending on governing authority. PRC criminal laws prohibit producing, disseminating, or selling sexually explicit material which the person doing so may be sentenced to life imprisonment. There is an ongoing campaign against "spiritual pollution", the term referencing the
Chinese Communist party The Chinese Communist Party (CCP), officially the Communist Party of China (CPC), is the founding and sole ruling party of the People's Republic of China (PRC). Under the leadership of Mao Zedong, the CCP emerged victorious in the Chinese Ci ...
's
Anti-Spiritual Pollution Campaign The Anti-Spiritual Pollution Campaign () was a political campaign spearheaded by conservative factions within the Chinese Communist Party that lasted from October 1983 to December 1983. In general, its advocates wanted to curb Western-inspired ...
of 1983. Although pornography is illegal, it is available via the
Internet The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a ''internetworking, network of networks'' that consists ...
. Nationwide surveys between the years 2000 and 2015 revealed "more than 70 percent of men aged 18 to 29 said they had watched porn in the past year." PRC authorities have closed down many pornographic services in recent years, but an ongoing cat and mouse game between the two has led providers and users to find other ways to share adult content, both self-made and pirated from other pornographic film studios. In this aspect the development of the nation's online porn industry reflects the overall development of China's Internet. In contrast, pornographic films can be legally traded in Taiwan and pornography is available via a number of routes, including DVD, television and the Internet. The level of piracy of pornographic films in the ROC territories is high because authorities have not traditionally recognised their copyrights. Copyright protection is usually strictly applied in the ROC, but pornography has been seen as an exception.


Legality

According to the Section 9 of Criminal Law of the People's Republic of China, it is illegal to produce and distribute pornographic material for profit, violators shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not more than three years, criminal detention or public surveillance and shall also be fined; simple possession is legal. According to the Article 68 of Law of the PRC on Penalties for Administration of Public Security, it is illegal to produce, transport, duplicate, sell or lend pornographic materials including books, periodicals, pictures, movies and audio-video products, or disseminate pornographic information by making use of computer information networks, telephones or other means of communications, violators shall be detained for no less than 10 days but no more than 15 days and may, in addition, be fined no more than 3,000 yuan; and if the circumstances are relatively minor, they shall be detained for no more than 5 days or be fined no more than 500 yuan; simple possession is legal. In mainland China, there are no laws that specifically distinguishing and punishing child pornography, the existing laws adopt a uniform standard of punishment for all pornography. But in practice, it is limited to punishing violators who spread pornographic materials amounting to more than 40 files on China's social medias platforms., nobody was punished for leeching and seeding pornographic materials via P2P network, in contrast, many people get pornographic materials this way. Giant companies like Baidu,
Tencent Tencent Holdings Ltd. () is a Chinese multinational technology and entertainment conglomerate and holding company headquartered in Shenzhen. It is one of the highest grossing multimedia companies in the world based on revenue. It is also the wo ...
which provides Cloud storages and P2P offline download services ( Seedbox) will change pornographic videos to "8 seconds educational videos" to educate users that the government is conducting a campaign to combat pornography and illegal activities or simply prevent users download or upload pornographic materials.


Government censorship

In 1997, a sweeping wave of regulations aimed at restricting internet usage was enacted. Section Five of the Computer Information Network and Internet Security, Protection, and Management Regulations was the first time pornography was specifically targeted and banned in China's criminal law. It defined obscene material as any "books, periodicals, movies, video-and audio-tapes, pictures, etc. that explicitly portray sexual behavior or undisguisedly publicize pornographic materials", but made exception for those used for medical or artistic purposes. The State Administration of Radio, Film and Television's prohibition on pornography has been complete, and the government has shown no signs of reversing its decision. Directors, producers, and actors involved in pornographic films have been barred from competing in any film competitions. Any
film studio A film studio (also known as movie studio or simply studio) is a major entertainment company or motion picture company that has its own privately owned studio facility or facilities that are used to make films, which is handled by the production ...
found in violation may have its license revoked.


Ideas

Chinese government consistently holds the idea that pornography information is harmful, arguing that "disseminating pornographic information online severely harms the physical and mental health of minors, and seriously corrupts social
ethos Ethos ( or ) is a Greek word meaning "character" that is used to describe the guiding beliefs or ideals that characterize a community, nation, or ideology; and the balance between caution, and passion. The Greeks also used this word to refer to ...
", pornography information is close to "
spiritual pollution The Anti-Spiritual Pollution Campaign () was a political campaign spearheaded by conservative factions within the Chinese Communist Party that lasted from October 1983 to December 1983. In general, its advocates wanted to curb Western-inspired ...
". ''
Xinhuanet Xinhua News Agency (English pronunciation: )J. C. Wells: Longman Pronunciation Dictionary, 3rd ed., for both British and American English, or New China News Agency, is the official state news agency of the People's Republic of China. Xinhua ...
'' states that " Chinese cultural traditions and moral values do not allow obscene and pornographic information to spread unchecked on the Internet".


Methods

The term ''
Great Firewall of China The Great Firewall (''GFW''; ) is the combination of legislative actions and technologies enforced by the People's Republic of China to regulate the Internet domestically. Its role in internet censorship in China is to block access to selected for ...
'' was coined in 1997 by Geremie Barmé to describe the combination of legislative actions and technologies enforced by the
People's Republic of China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, most populous country, with a Population of China, population exceeding 1.4 billion, sli ...
to regulate the
Internet The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a ''internetworking, network of networks'' that consists ...
domestically. First introduced in 1997, three years after the internet first arrived in China, it included regulations prohibiting the use of the internet to disseminate sexually suggestive material, among other things. The Great Firewall is a subsystem of the
Golden Shield Project The Golden Shield Project (), also named National Public Security Work Informational Project, is the Chinese nationwide network-security fundamental constructional project by the e-government of the People's Republic of China. This project i ...
, also referred to as the "National Public Security Work Informational Project". In its effort to combat internet pornography and other internet activity which it deemed illegal, the government of China issued the widespread use of internet censors. Algorithms designed by tech companies including Alibaba and Tuputech, these censors were designed to detect, block, and remove all sexual content. The development of artificial intelligence technologies has been essential in the success of the censorship of internet pornography in China.


Issues

Chinese internet censors are highly skilled at detecting pornographic images, audios, and videos. However, these censors are imperfect and susceptible to errors. An online lecture on human birth was shut down after censors flagged the livestream as pornographic material. “A livestreamed course on meiosis, the division of sex cells...” resulted in a similar problem for a biology teacher in Wenzhou, China. While trying to eliminate all sexual content, censors have inadvertently targeted educational content though the law allows it. Pornography related charges often carry serious punishments. Distributors of pornography can face up to life imprisonment and possession charges carry hefty fines and can cary prison sentences. Some critics claim that censorship disproportionately targets LGBT content, which leads to higher criminalization of authors and creators who attempt to make pornography more inclusive. Others claim that the crackdown on pornography is used as a tool by the Communist Party to increase censorship and further limit freedom of expression. Sex education is extremely limited in China. Consequently, pornography has become the "only source of information for millions of young people" looking to learn about sex.


Survival of pornography


Pornographic websites

The first pornographic websites appeared in China before sites like YouPorn and Pornhub became popular in the West. A few major (though ill-fated) websites appeared in China during 2004, including "99 Erotica Forum" and "Erotica Juneday". The
business model A business model describes how an organization creates, delivers, and captures value,''Business Model Generation'', Alexander Osterwalder, Yves Pigneur, Alan Smith, and 470 practitioners from 45 countries, self-published, 2010 in economic, soc ...
for these websites requires visitors to navigate through pay-per-click advertisements for sex toys, Viagra-esque pills, and online casinos before they can watch or download pornographic content. The websites typically offer a mix of domestic amateur pornography videos and pirated content from Japan, Europe and the US. They typically set up their servers overseas and frequently change their
URL A Uniform Resource Locator (URL), colloquially termed as a web address, is a reference to a web resource that specifies its location on a computer network and a mechanism for retrieving it. A URL is a specific type of Uniform Resource Identifie ...
s to avoid being detected by the authorities. The quantity of advertisements on these websites, sometimes with no pornographic content available after the advertisements have been navigated, and the high risk of picking up
malware Malware (a portmanteau for ''malicious software'') is any software intentionally designed to cause disruption to a computer, server, client, or computer network, leak private information, gain unauthorized access to information or systems, de ...
in the process of attempting to access these websites has prompted some services in China to charge a membership fee in return for greater reliability and fewer or no advertisements. However, the use of domestic bank accounts makes such websites even more vulnerable to authorities. The continued creation and distribution of pornography, despite its illegality, has resulted in the imprisonment of thousands of people across China.


Pornography related arrests and censorship


2004-2006

A crackdown of pornographic websites in 2004 lead to the arrests of over 200 people and the shutdown of over 700 pornographic websites including "99 Erotica", after having acquired more than 300,000 registered users within a year of its launch. One of those imprisoned, Wang Yanli, was believed to be the first woman jailed on a pornography related charge. She received a sentence of four years for operating an online strip club. In 2005 authorities sentenced its eleven workers, among them teachers and civil servants, to imprisonment ranging from three to twelve years for disseminating
obscene material An obscenity is any utterance or act that strongly offends the prevalent morality of the time. It is derived from the Latin ''obscēnus'', ''obscaenus'', "boding ill; disgusting; indecent", of uncertain etymology. Such loaded language can be use ...
. In October 2006 authorities closed down "Erotica Juneday", which charged its highest-paying members 3,999 yuan (then around $490) a year, and sentenced founder Chen Hui to life imprisonment. Among those who complained about the harshness of the sentence was the sociologist Li Yinhe. She called on authorities to either repeal the pornography laws in China or stop pretending the nation enjoys
freedom of expression Freedom of speech is a principle that supports the freedom of an individual or a community to articulate their opinions and ideas without fear of retaliation, censorship, or legal sanction. The right to freedom of expression has been recog ...
.


2009-present

Between 2009 and 2010, crackdowns on pornography sites resulted in the arrests of thousands of people annually. In 2009, 5,394 people were arrested and 9,000 illegal porn-related sites were shut down. In 2010, Chinese authorities shut down 60,000 pornographic websites and arrested almost 5,000 suspects.


Slang terms

Pornography collectors who have resources are called "old drivers" (), while sharing pornographic videos is referred to as "driving" (), the recipient of the content is known as a "car seat" () and pornography is "welfare" ().


See also

* Pornography laws by region *
Internet censorship in China Internet censorship in the People's Republic of China (PRC) affects both publishing and viewing online material. Many controversial events are censored from news coverage, preventing many Chinese citizens from knowing about the actions of th ...
*
Legality of child pornography Child pornography is illegal in most countries, but there is substantial variation in definitions, categories, penalties, and interpretations of laws. Differences include the definition of "child" under the laws, which can vary with the age o ...
* Legal status of internet pornography


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pornography In China Ch Laws of China
Chi Chi or CHI may refer to: Greek *Chi (letter), the Greek letter (uppercase Χ, lowercase χ); Chinese * ''Chi'' (length) (尺), a traditional unit of length, about ⅓ meter * Chi (mythology) (螭), a dragon * Chi (surname) (池, pinyin: ''chí ...